The Osun State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) says that it has concluded plans to drag the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the just concluded election, Senator Ademola Adeleke, to the Elections Petition Tribunal over the outcome of the election.
The party said that the decision to challenge the results of the July 16 Osun State Governorship election at the tribunal follows assurances by the party’s lawyers who said they have good grounds to challenge the results after studying them.
This was made known by the Osun State Chairman of APC, Gboyega Famodun, at a news conference on Thursday at the party secretariat, in Osogbo.
What the Osun State APC Chairman is saying
Famodun in his address said, “We are going to the tribunal. Our lawyers had informed us that we have good reasons to challenge the results of the election at the tribunal.’’
- The party chairman condemned the suspected anti-party activities of an APC faction in the state, ”The Osun Progressive (TOP)”, which is under the control of the Minister of Interior and former Governor of the state, Rauf Aregbesola, and worked for the opposition, the PDP, to deny the APC victory at the election.
- He said, “The recent protest by the group, calling for his removal as the party’s chairman and the restructuring of the party, after they openly supported the PDP candidate, Sen. Ademola Adeleke, during the governorship election was shameful and wicked.
- “Our position is that the protest was shameful, callous, primitive, selfish, wicked, misplaced and inconsiderate for the Aregbesola supporters, who glaringly worked against the success of Gov. Oyetola at the polls, to now be canvassing restructuring of the party through a sponsored protest.
- “Assuming without conceding that there are challenges within the party, the protesters and their patron should know that they lack moral right to either suggest or effect any likely solution for the restructuring of our party, as it is on record that they massively and collectively worked against Oyetola.
- “Since members of the factional group (TOP) people, had done their worst by working assiduously and conscientiously by teaming up with the PDP for the success of Adeleke, which is the highest level of an anti-party activity that can be committed by any politician, it will be a needless venture to enter into any pact with the group that is bereft of honour.’’
What you should know
- Recall that on July 17, Senator Ademola Adeleke, the gubernatorial candidate of PDP, declared the winner of the keenly contested Osun State governorship election with a total of 403,371 votes, to beat his closest challenger, the APC candidate, Governor Oyetola, who pulled 375,027 votes to come second.
- In the build-up to this election, Governor Oyetola and Aregbesola fell out over the control of the APC in Osun state. The minister was also absent during the party’s campaign in the state and did not vote in the election.
- Some political analysts have attributed the defeat of APC in the election to the feud between the 2 leaders and the inability of the party hierarchy to settle the dispute.
- The Governor-elect of Osun State, Senator Ademola Adeleke, had on July 19, admitted that some associates of the All Progressive Congress (APC) party chieftain and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, supported him during the just concluded governorship election in the state.
- Governor Oyetola had, in his reaction to the electoral loss appealed to his supporters to remain calm, saying that he and the party had taken cognisance of the results of the governorship election in the State as announced by INEC, and would study the outcome and respond appropriately.
